Watching
by Samantha Spanner
Summary: Alpha was told to watch for The Bird that night, but the last thing he expexted was to have a certain, young Golden Retriever joining him. Oneshot.


**Author's Notes: Hmm... I seem to be publishing a lot on random oneshots, eh?  
>I came up with this when I noticed the lack of <em>UP <em>fics on here.**

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><p>The full moon shone high over the Tepui, the stars twinkling through the misty fog. Juxtaposed against the moonlight on a high ridge, four canine figures passed each other, two starting the short climb downward while the others trotted upward.<p>

The larger of the two upward-climbing dogs, who reached the top of the ridge first, was jet black, with faint hints of brown that were barely visible in the moonlight. The dog's ears were erect, in fact, everything about him was in stiff observation as he sat and looked out over the Tepui.

The smaller of the dogs trotted up a moment later, his rather wispy, golden tail fluttering behind him. He wasn't nearly as serious, or still, as the first dog, and he was bounding about excitedly, a faint red glow coming from his collar.

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><p>"Is this not great, Alpha?" said the fluffy, Golden Retriever as he pranced around the serious Doberman. "I am excited. We are on watch."<p>

Alpha said nothing, but was mentally regretting his lack of protest when Master had told him to take the newer dog with him on his watch.

"Oh, I am excited." the Retriever continued, stopping in front of the other dog, wagging his tail. "Did I say that already, Alpha?"

Alpha paused and nodded slightly at the bouncy pup's question. He sighed inwardly. Why him? Why not Beta? He could have taken the new dog on his watch, but no...

"Do you know what I like to do when I'm excited, Alpha?" the golden dog asked, prancing about again.

Alpha blinked. Frolic in a roundabout manner? he thought dryly, though he kept his thoughts to himself for reasons known only to him.

Seeing that Alpha wasn't going to reply, the dog continued. "I like to sing."

Two words ran through the mind of Alpha, 'Oh. no.'.

Suddenly, the younger dog let out a howl. "Oh, I like to sing, when I am excited, and I am with Alpha, and we are on watch, looking for a bird, that I herd, is very loud, maybe it will like our song-" The song went on for a few more sentences of non-rhyming, run-on sentences, forming a couple more verses that exclaimed the excitement of the singer.

Alpha tried his best to block out the noise coming from the other canine, wondering why exactly the dog was on a watch anyway.

"Oh, I like to sing, when I am excited, and I am with Alpha-"

"Dug!" Alpha barked suddenly, the uncharacteristically high pitched word sounding rather prominent in it's intrusion. He had noticed that the song was repeating itself, and the protest had come out before he caught himself, revealing the fact that his collar had broken... Again...

Dug paused and looked at Alpha, one ear perked in curiosity. "Yes, Alpha?" he asked, trying very hard not to sound amused.

Alpha took a deep breath, keeping his embarrassment in check and trying to think of a way he could minimize the squeak of his voice. "Dug," he squeaked eventually, not having come up with a way to fix the collar. "There are certain methods of observation that involve listening..."

"Oooohhh..." Dug replied, perking the other ear up.

Alpha let out a sigh of relief. Mayhapse there would finally be quiet from the Retriever.

"I am great at listening. Once, I listened so well that I heard you snoring and-"

Alpha stiffened and snapped his head around to stare at dug. "What?"

Dug froze. Apparently, Alpha didn't find the aforementioned moment funny. "N-nothing, Alpha..." he said quickly, his ears lowering as he looked up at the Doberman.

Alpha settled down somewhat, though he was still a bit on edge. He snored? It must have been Gamma... "I _AM_ good at listening..."

Alpha sighed. Here they went again.

"One time I even- SQUIRREL!"

Both dogs instantly stood and excitedly stared in the direction Dug had seen the squirrel in. Unfortunately, it had disappeared into the undergrowth.

"One time I even heard a cat out here." Dug continued as he and Alpha broke out of their squirrel searching.

"When were you here?" Alpha couldn't help but ask, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh... I... Um..." Dug started nervously, not having expected that question. "I snuck out here so I could watch too..."

Alpha was genuinely surprised. Perhaps Master had heard of this? Maybe that was why he had been sent out?

There was a moment of silence as the two dogs looked out into the night, and Alpha began to wonder if Dug had more potential than he'd thought.

"Hey, I know a joke!" Dug's voice cut into Alpha's thoughts. "A squirrel walked up to a tree and said-"

Alpha's ever erect ears flattened against the back of his head, effectively blocking out the rest of the highly overused joke.

Potential or not, this was going to be a _loooooong_ night.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own Up, blah blah blah...<strong>


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